Arcadia Big Dicks Olde Ale

Brewed by Arcadia Brewing Company
Style: Old Ale
Battle Creek, Michigan USA

Bottle. Pours a hazy orange amber body with an off white head. Floral fruity esters of apples and citrus. Light grapefruit with chocolate and caramel alcohol notes. Decent brew.

aroma of overripe apples with some booze. wonderful apperance, filthy rust but completely opaque center. flavor is earthy, malt forward but not overly sweet, some hops are present with an interesting dirty aftertaste that lingers a bit. palate is a bit too slick. overall quite interesting, this might not be the greatest old ale (not that i would know) but its certainly far from the lower half of the beers ive had, the bad rep is undeserved.

Draught at Sunset Grill, January 2009. Dark amber, with some copper highlights and a medium beige head. Not much to the aroma, musty yeast-like notes, with some old raisin and toffee that has an almost prune-like element to it. Flavor tastes, well, rather old. Some light oxidation of the malts, which are fairly lean and a pervading element of dustiness/mustiness hangs throughout the flavor. Dryish, somewhat thinned-out maltiness and a bit of cardboard-like blandness on the finish. Some sweet vanilla and caramel maltiness up front is all that saves this from being a drainpour. Alcohol is not noticed. Bittersweet, toasty/acidic malts finish it off.

Bottle. Pours dark brown with a beigh head. Aroma is malty with caramel, fruit, toffee and is slightly hoppy. flavor is moderately sweet and has a sticky texture with caramel, toffee, fruit, pine notes and alcohol. Medium bodied with a lingering bitter dry finish.

[bottle - 22 oz - 2006 vintage] Chestnut brown with a creamy looking tan head. Aroma is sweet and very malty with some hints of whiskey, cookie dough, caramel, and fruit. Flavor is very sweet at the beginning with lots of malts and cookie. Some vanilla and bourbon in the middle along with a very dark fruit flavor. Maybe plums or raisins. Finishes clean and sweet with a nice warming alcohol burn.

GABF 2008. Slightly hazy brown, boozy whiskey barrel aroma. Sweet toffee and cookie malt, more whiskey character, warming alcohol in the finish.

22 from Gary’s in Madison, NJ. Very funky smell to this one, like something has spoiled. Overly malty and too thin to leave much of a positive impression. Might be the greatest beer name of all time though, and also huge props for being named for Richard the Lionheart.

GABF 2008. Pours clear brown with a small, fizzy, white head, somewhat diminishing with fair lacing. Aroma is heavy malt (cookie, caramel, toffee), average hops (perfume), average yeast (dough) with notes of alcohol, wood, and vanilla. Medium bodied, alcoholic texture, soft carbonation, and a bitter finish. Average duration, heavy sweetness, moderate acidity and bitterness.